If you take a perusal of the songs I’ve featured in the Music – Songs category of this site you’ll soon realise that most, if not all, are novelty songs of some kind or another. Â Part of the reason for this is that as a kid I was never really into music in a big way, and certainly wasn’t a fan of any one band in particular, so the songs which I tend to remember most vividly, perhaps regrettably, are the rather less serious ones.

Apology out of the way here’s todays whimsical offering – John Kettley is a Weatherman, by A Tribe Of Toffs. Â This little ditty was released in 1988 and although many people will remember it even now it only actually made its way to number 21 in the UK charts. Â The chorus lyrics were simple and straight to the point:-

John Kettley is a weatherman, a weatherman, a weatherman.

John Kettley is a weatherman, and so is Michael Fish.

The main verses went through a series of well known people at the time and a little something about them, such as Johnathan Ross collects moss (possible I guess?), Andy Crane has no brain and Simon Parkin is always larking. Â Amusingly enough whilst Simon Parkin was a childrens TV presenter at the time of the record he is now, wait for it, a weatherman on ITV!

The record first got noticed when A Tribe Of Toffs sent a recording to Andy Crane. Â Despite insulting him my insuating a lack of grey matter Mr. Crane showed the tape around and it was seen by Paul Smith, the producer of BBC kids show But First This. Â Must admit I don’t remember that show at all, must have been one of the more terrible BBC Saturday morning shows that aired when Get Fresh was on ITV. Â From the YouTube clip below though it looks like it was presented by some bloke and the girl who played Johnny Briggs sister in the CBBC kids show, and later went on to be an ambulance worker on Casualty.

Anyway, back to the song. Â Paul Smith got the band in to record a video and from there they went on to appear on other shows including Terry Wogan’s chat show. Â The video even featured John Kettley right at the end, as the band leap through his weather map and start wrestling with him.

Sadly this was the only s0ng that the band got into the charts with. Â They tried to launch a few serious songs but with little luck, so were forced into making a second novelty record, entitled Terry Wogan’s On TV (Again), but it sank and the band split soon after. Â However, the bands memory is kept alive today thanks to the A Tribe Of Toffs website, where you can even buy their albums (which appear to have been self published).